GREEN BAY, Wis.—First-round pick Nick Perry is going to be sharing time at outside linebacker as long as veteran Erik Walden continues to play at a high level.

Perry hasn't done anything spectacular the first two weeks. He played only about 20 snaps against Chicago because of a sore wrist, but he probably would have lost snaps to Walden anyway.

The coaches like Perry because at 270 pounds he can hold the edge in the run game better than the smaller Walden.

Perry also has some explosion off the line of scrimmage, but he's not as well-rounded as Walden, especially when it comes to transitioning from pass rusher to pass defender.

There will be games—mostly against teams that run a lot—that Perry plays the majority of snaps. But right now, he's going to have to settle for sharing his spot.

It's clear that defensive coordinator Dom Capers is going to use a heavy dose of rookies this year to pump his defense. He made the gutsy move of incorporating six of them into his game plan against Chicago and it paid off with seven sacks and four interceptions.

The addition of Jerron McMillian at nickel safety and Casey Hayward as dime cornerback were two of the best moves. Both outperformed the previous starters, veterans Jarrett Bush and M.D. Jennings. McMillian is a better athlete than Jennings and Hayward is more of a natural pass defender than Bush.